storing a pop-up for the winter: canvas up or down, and keeping the mice out of it

set up under a roof is best and almost nobody can do it, so let us talk about stored-outside-folded, which is most of us. the one rule that matters: it goes away bone dry. if you fold a soft-wall with any damp in the canvas it will mildew and the smell never fully leaves. set it up in the driveway on the next dry breezy day even after the season is over, let the canvas dry for a few hours, then fold it. a hard-side like yours cares less but still wants to be dry inside before it is closed.

mice. they want three things, warmth, a dark hole, and food smell. take every crumb of food out, every one. then close the obvious entry points, the furnace intake and the water heater vent get a bit of steel wool or a vent cover, because that is the mouse freeway. i am not going to tell you dryer sheets and peppermint work because they do not reliably, they are a maybe on top of the real steps, not instead of them.

soft-wall here and the dry-before-folding thing is gospel, learned it the bad way on a camper i bought used that had been folded wet and the previous owner's mildew smell took two seasons and a lot of vinegar to beat.

for mice i set a couple of plain snap traps inside and one in the pass-through, checked when i think of it. the covers and steel wool keep most out, the traps catch the one that gets in anyway. and park it so nothing, no grass, no firewood, no stacked totes, touches the tires or the frame, because that is the ladder they climb.

nobody has said the water part yet and it is the expensive one. before the first hard freeze, drain the fresh tank, the water heater and the lines, and either blow them out with air or pump RV antifreeze through until it comes pink out of every faucet. a split water line or a cracked pump in april is a lot more than a cover. bypass the water heater so you are not filling a six gallon tank with antifreeze.

pull the battery and bring it inside or at least onto a tender in the garage. a battery left on a frozen camper all winter is a dead battery in spring, and a flat lead-acid battery can freeze and crack. that is a 150 dollar lesson a lot of us paid once.

Pennsylvania so a little milder but same drill. one add for the soft-wall people: do not cinch a tight waterproof tarp straight down against folded canvas all winter, you trap moisture and get the exact mildew you were trying to avoid. use a breathable camper cover made for it, or at least keep an air gap. a cheap blue poly tarp strapped tight is how a dry camper turns into a musty one by march.

and crack a roof vent or a window a hair under the cover if your cover allows it, so it can breathe. a sealed cold camper sweats inside just like a sealed warm one does.